Job growth an anemic 115,000; jobless rate ticks down
The American economy added a lackluster 115,000 jobs in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent.
The only good news in the report is that job estimates for previous months were revised upward, meaning more jobs had been created than initially thought.
For example, the initial March release reported 120,000 jobs created; the revised figure is 154,000.
The February number, originally reported at 227,000, has been revised upward twice and now stands at 259,000.
If that pattern holds for April, today’s numbers will also be revised upward. But such revisions won’t be enough to turn a disappointing number into a strong number. This continues to be a long, hard slog.
– Jay Bookman
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540 comments Add your comment
TaxPayer
May 4th, 2012
9:43 am
You mean like in all those good socialist utopian countries that obama is trying to transform us into? You know, the good countries.
NOPE, JKL2.
This post brought to you by the makers of simple answers, for times when anything more complex would just be a waste of typing.
JKL2
May 4th, 2012
9:43 am
steve- The only clown I remember was our last President that you cons adored, who is now so vilified for his idiocy, globally, that you never see him anymore.
It’s called respect for the position. Should he be out trash talking our country to every third world dictator like Carter and Clinton did when he was president?
Here’s the kind of stuff this great former president does. (note the lack of TV cameras since he isn’t doing it as a photo op like obama does) http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/05/03/my-100-kilometer-mountain-bike-ride-with-president-bush-and-20-wounded-warriors/
http://www.examiner.com/article/former-president-bush-leads-wounded-warriors-on-100k-ride
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:43 am
No one posting so far sees it correctly.
The first number the BLS posts for a month is always ALWAYS flawed, because they don’t get back all the data in time. That’s why there are revisions that come in subsequent months. The first number is a GUESS with a bias — the birth/death calculation — toward what happened a year earlier.
The numbers are refined with the revisions. If the revisions are trending upward, it means the BLS is missing new job growth in their initial numbers. If the revisions are trending downward, it means the BLS is overestimating job creation with their initial numbers.
As Jay wrote: the revisions are trending in the positive direction. That’s a good sign that the economy is stronger than the initial look is suggesting.
Your whining may vary, of course.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
May 4th, 2012
9:44 am
Nine states lost eligibility for extended benefits in April and five others reduced the duration of emergency compensation
All those people are dropped off the participation rate. Anyone can check the archives and see that I have been the biggest cheerleader for job growth. Until housing comes back we are going to continue to limp along.
td
May 4th, 2012
9:45 am
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
9:38 am
I will ask you the same question as I asked Adam. Can you explain to all of us how we can have 1 million less jobs available today then the day Obama took office and everything is so great? Also, if the economist say that it take 175,000 new jobs per month to just keep up with new immigration and kids entering the workforce, then how is a 119,000 added really reducing unemployment?
USinUK
May 4th, 2012
9:45 am
“Not regulating pesticides creates more jobs?
Where? In the health care industry?”
well played, sir!
TaxPayer
May 4th, 2012
9:45 am
Not regulating pesticides creates more jobs?
Where? In the health care industry?
Paul,
I do believe you have uncovered those hidden jobs in the Republican de-regulation mantra.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:46 am
All those people are dropped off the participation rate.
If you haven’t had a job for two years… are you really “participating”?
TaxPayer
May 4th, 2012
9:48 am
It’s called respect for the position.
Coming from JKL2, THAT’s a riot!
Peadawg
May 4th, 2012
9:48 am
“This post brought to you by the makers of simple answers, for times when anything more complex would just be a waste of typing.”
Yet that add sentence is…wait for it…a waste of typing.
Peadawg
May 4th, 2012
9:48 am
added*
Jay
May 4th, 2012
9:48 am
Of course, labor force participation actually peaked in 2000 and has been falling ever since. It’s now roughly at levels last seen during the Reagan administration.
Part of it’s undoubtedly because there are fewer jobs. But part of it also has to be attributed to an aging work force, with the first Baby Boomers starting to turn 60 in 2006.
Steve - USA (I support "None Of The Above")
May 4th, 2012
9:49 am
“If you haven’t had a job for two years… are you really “participating”?
According to the formula….Yes.
JKL2
May 4th, 2012
9:49 am
paul- have you a real world, not theoretical, construct that shows how, as a national policy, this line of action would have reversed the Great Recession?
Here’s what I would like to see: http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods125.html
GT
May 4th, 2012
9:50 am
We expected this last month, but the warm weather prematurely opened up the economy, just like the flowers. So historical climate change has effected the expectations of our economy. So far thank God we are not in London double dipping, not to say we won’t.
I would love to see China’s numbers. If the rich are getting richer, the trickle down is happening somewhere and my bet it is happening in China and Central America. In order for Americans to compete they will have to be impoverished. Move the government safety nets away and that is what you will get, cheap labor, or a riot. You can’t have a turkey in every pot when the rich keep a dozen for themselves and send their laundry to China for cleaning.
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
9:50 am
$7,000,000,000,000 (seven trillion) flooded in to the market by the Fed and this is all we get? People have given up and quit looking for work and wait on Oblama’s check in the mail. This president’s economic policies are a failure. Time for a change. Time for the 1st “Reality Show” President to get fired.
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
9:51 am
http://www.gop.gov/policy-news/11/10/27/summary-of-jobs-bills-stalled
1) H.R. 872—Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act: …By removing duplicative requirements, the bill would reduce overlapping and unnecessary regulation on pesticides that are already regulated, thereby reducing costs to both farmers and small business owners.
2) H.R. 910—Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011: …The bill would prevent a needless increase in energy prices for American households and businesses.
3) H.J.Res. 37—Disapproving the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission with respect to regulating the Internet and broadband industry practices: … In May 2010, seventy-four House Democrats sent a letter to FCC Chairman Genachowski making the case that net-neutrality rules will “jeopardize jobs” and “should not be done without additional direction from Congress.”
4) H.R. 1230—Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act: …The bill would help to reduce energy prices and promote job creation by expediting offshore oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico and the Virginia coast.
5) H.R. 1229—Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act: …The bill would prohibit the Secretary from issuing a permit without ensuring that the proposed drilling operations meet all critical safety system requirements (including blowout prevention), and oil spill response and containment requirements.
6) H.R. 1231—Reversing President Obama’s Offshore Moratorium Act: …The bill would essentially lift the President’s ban on new offshore drilling by requiring the Administration to move forward on American energy production in areas estimated to contain the most oil and natural gas resources.
7) H.R. 2021—The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011: H.R. 2021 would eliminate needless permitting delays that have stalled important energy production opportunities off the coast of Alaska.
9) H.R. 1315—Consumer Financial Protection & Soundness Improvement Act: H.R. 1315 would improve consumer protection and provides greater economic stability by allowing the Financial Stability Oversight Council to vote to set aside any harmful federal regulation.
10) H.R. 1938— North American-Made Energy Security Act: …The bill would promote job creation and energy security by ending the needless delay of the construction and operation of the Keystone XL pipeline.
11) H.R. 2587—Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act: H.R. 2587 would prohibit the National Labor Relations Board (NRLB) from ordering any employer to close, relocate, or transfer employment under any circumstance.
12) H.R. 2401—Transparency In Regulatory Analysis Of Impacts On The Nation: …Specifically, the bill would require the President to establish the Committee for the Cumulative Analysis of Regulations that Impact Energy and Manufacturing. The Committee would be charged with analyzing and reporting on the cumulative and incremental impacts of covered rules and actions of the EPA concerning air, waste, water, and climate change.
13) H.R. 2681—Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act: H.R. 2681 would provide a legislative stay of three EPA emissions standards that apply to cement manufacturing plants and are known as the “Cement MACT rules.” The bill would also provide for the implementation of effective regulation that protects communities both environmentally and economically.
14) H.R. 2250—EPA Regulatory Relief Act: H.R. 2250 would provide a legislative stay of four interrelated EPA rules, commonly referred to as the “Boiler MACT rules,” that govern emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from approximately 200,000 boilers and incinerators nationwide.
15) H.R. 2273—Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act: …The bill would include enforceable federal standards, but would leave regulation and enforcement to the states. The bill would also provide consistent, safe management of coal combustion residuals in a way that protects jobs and encourages recycling and beneficial use.
Out of all those “job” bills put forth by the GOP, only two directly refers to jobs in their description, and many of them are simply methods to repeal regulation. One other one creates government jobs by having the president create some kind of committee that I seriously doubt that any average American would be able to apply for and serve on.
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
9:52 am
The dimwitted RIGHT keeps blaming the government because the private sector keeps increasing unemployment in this country.
They wanted Ronnie and George’s trickle down so bad. And now that they have it, they can’t figure out whether to ___ or go blind…
jconservative
May 4th, 2012
9:52 am
Brosephus™
“jcon
You’ve posted those numbers before on job creation. Where can I go to find them?”
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Here they are:
Net Job Creation by Decade
1960’s…..31%
1970’s…..27%
1980’s…..20%
1990’s…..20%
2000’s…….0%
Mighty Righty
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
Jamvet-I don’t want American to fail. I don’t want Obama to fail. I do want socialism/communism to fail in America. Unfortunately it is apparent that Obama’s defeat is neccessary to defeat the socialist/communist movement in this country. Thus far, Obama’s policies has proven that socialism/communism does not work except for roughly 47% who are wards of the state. Hopefully, there are enough voters in the producer class to put this country back on the road to freedom.
Gator Joe
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
Romney has stated he would do the opposite of what President Obama has done with regrard to the economy. So since we are talking in hypothetical terms, as Romney is, then the results of his “opposite” approach would be higher unemployment, no growth, and oh yes, a bankrupt, or out-of-business Chrysler and GM.
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
Paul
I’ve been debating on whether or not to pursue a psych degree. I could put it to good use in my current career.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
I love how some people complain about people giving up and not working in one breath and in the other complain about how those same people don’t pay taxes. So which is: are you sad for them or angry at them?
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
Should he be out trash talking our country to every third world dictator like Carter and Clinton did
Liar.
Jay
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
Housing ain’t coming back, Steve. That was a bubble, an unsustainable and in some ways fraudulent burst of activity.
It’s gone.
Peadawg
May 4th, 2012
9:53 am
“Part of it’s undoubtedly because there are fewer jobs.”
B/c of all those ATMs and airport kiosks, right Jay?
Damn that technology!
I just couldn’t help myself.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
9:55 am
Remember “No New Taxes” ??
……………. and I say again:
“If that pattern holds for April, today’s numbers will also be revised upward. But such revisions won’t be enough to turn a disappointing number into a strong number. This continues to be a long, hard slog.”
“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a ONE-TERM (emphasis added) proposition.” Barack Obama
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
9:55 am
Oblama says he is for human rights but turns his back on a Chinese hero risking his life fighting for freedom. Talk is cheap Mr.President.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:55 am
Housing ain’t coming back, Steve. That was a bubble, an unsustainable and in some ways fraudulent burst of activity.
So those complaining about the numbers since the housing market collapsed should try to grasp that the job growth is now in areas that are NOT in a bubble that will burst and that comparisons to 2004-2007 are not defensible.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:56 am
“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a ONE-TERM (emphasis added) proposition.” Barack Obama*
Unless the Republicans run yet another weak candidate against me, in which case, I’ll do a victory lap instead of campaigning.
Don't Tread
May 4th, 2012
9:57 am
“The numbers would be much better if the a##holes who run this country would stop being terrified of spending money that can be borrowed for next to nothing”
Really…? So business should spend anyway and borrow the money to cover it (and if they don’t, they’re a##holes)? This is EXACTLY the wrong way to run a business, and EXACTLY why many (but not all) of them went under when the recession started.
Call me old school, but in an established business, you do not borrow money to cover payroll or other minor expenses that should be paid for with cash flow. Borrowing is for major capital improvements or expansions, and only as a last resort.
Back to topic: we only added 115,000 jobs but the unemployment rate went down? Guess there must be a lot of retiring people and folks who have given up on finding a job. I wonder what the welfare enrollment did last month…I’m guessing it went up.
Steve
May 4th, 2012
9:57 am
Unbelievable…
Let’s vote in the Mittens so we can cut taxes on the wealthy and reverse the progress we’ve made thus far.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
9:57 am
Talk is cheap Mr.President.
So are you. Are you ready to blockade China over it and cause your iPhone price to double? If not, STFU.
td
May 4th, 2012
9:58 am
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
9:51 am
Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
9:59 am
I will ask you the same question as I asked Adam. Can you explain to all of us how we can have 1 million less jobs available today then the day Obama took office…
No.
First I am no economist or expert on these matters.
Seconly, you provide NO links to even confirm that what you post is not garbage. And frankly, your history of being veracity challenged is in play here.
Show me some concrete evidence of what you claim s being factual and not just made up talking points, and I will look at it
Though I do believe that part of the problem has been how your spineless heroes in Washington rewarded American businesses – via the tax code – to send jobs overseas. I would guess that that has something to do with unemployment in this country.
But I understand that that is something you Republicans desperately don’t want to know or talk about…
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:00 am
Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?
But if a regulation creates a job in another industry (e.g., people who add scrubbers to coal power plants), isn’t that hiring more people anyway?
nomoobama
May 4th, 2012
10:00 am
If you need a job or want a better one, you have no business voting for Obama. Where are the shovel ready jobs he constantly boasts about? He has no idea how to create private sector jobs…
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
10:01 am
ByteMe – Political thug :
What he meant was that he wouldn’t run again.
Flip-Flop !
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
10:01 am
There is plenty of blame for both sides but strangely they blame each other and accept no blame……….. that’s why they are POLITICIANS. time for TERM LIMITS.
TaxPayer
May 4th, 2012
10:02 am
Poor scout did not get the word. Unemployment is down to 8.1%. Only 0.1% to go to get to that magic 8% that I’m sure you are referencing in your posts when you claim Obama said he’d get it done…
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:02 am
I do want socialism/communism to fail in America.
You adored George W. Bush – the greatest socialist in American history. And voted for him twice
And now, you fake conservatives are getting ready to nominate a proven socialist. The very author of socialized medicine.
And you commies act like that is not even relevant.
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
10:02 am
jcon
Thanks. I tried to find them on the BLS website, but I guess I wasn’t putting in the correct search term.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:03 am
Seconly, you provide NO links to even confirm that what you post is not garbage. And frankly, your history of being veracity challenged is in play here.
I can state from the BLS tables that employment in Feb 2009 was 110 million… and employment today is (wait for it…) 111 million. The bottom was Feb 2010 at 106 million.
Whoops! Blew that talking point out of the water.
http://bls.gov/ce
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
10:04 am
TaxPayer:
Check your calendar. We’re past three years.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:04 am
What he meant was that he wouldn’t run again.
If that’s what you think he meant, then you need to check your comprehension skills. ‘Cause that ain’t what he said OR what he meant.
Paul
May 4th, 2012
10:04 am
Brosephus
You may very well be eligible for some employer support on the degree. You may want to see if you can combine with courses you already have and pursue a masters degree. That could be a pathway to promotion.
Jefferson
May 4th, 2012
10:05 am
Working is highly overrated.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
10:05 am
TaxPayer:
Plus the Obama Administration has devised a new way to calculate that figure (unlike previous administrations) which gives them a better rate.
Deception !!
UNCLE SAMANTHA
May 4th, 2012
10:06 am
and the GREAT RECOVERY or LOST DECADE continues???????
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
10:06 am
Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?
It’s not about what I think. It’s about what they do. When they have more money, have they hired more people in recent history? No. When they have had more money, have they increased the pay of the workers they currently have on payroll? Not very much. When they get more money, it’s headed to management or stockholders if past trends hold up. Just having more money isn’t going to get someone hired. There has to be excess demand for that product before a company hires someone else. It has nothing to do with money or regulations.
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:06 am
$7,000,000,000,000 (seven trillion) flooded in to the market by the Fed and this is all we get?
Who knows, Oblama? My very limited understanding is that is somewhat stemmed the hemorrhaging of jobs caused by the 2008 corporate destruction of capitalism.
And if that is true, just think how much worse and how much longer Bush’s Great Recession would have gone on had the Do Nothing Party been in charge?
We’d probably have 15% unemployment right now…
Mighty Righty
May 4th, 2012
10:06 am
Under the dysfuntional Obama povertynomics progrsm we have not trickle down but gusher down poverty. The highest poverty rate in the history of the United States. The most food stamp receipients in the history of the United States. The highest sustained gasoline prices in the history of the United States. The most home foreclosures in the history of the United States. The highest unemployment rate since statistics have been recorded. The largest deficits in the history of the United States. The first president in history to have no votes by his own party on his budget. Never has there been a more inept president. Barack “Gusher Down Poverty” Obama. But he did get bin Laden, alledgedly.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:07 am
Plus the Obama Administration has devised a new way to calculate that figure (unlike previous administrations) which gives them a better rate.
Really?
Care to explain how it used to be calculated before, and how it’s calculated now and how that change was “deceptive”? Or are you just randomly spewing bullet points you got in your inbox?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
10:07 am
ByteMe – Political thug:
Sorry ………. you saying that don’t make it so ……………..
Everyone be nice !
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
Sorry ………. you saying that don’t make it so ……………..
You too!
I’ve already figured out you’re just spewing mindless talking points today. YOU CAN DO BETTER.
Recon 0311 2533
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
Not to mention those who’ve given up looking for jobs and that makes the unemployment percentage inaccurate.
Steve
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
Mighty Righty – this was caused by Obama? LMAO!! What is WRONG with you conservatives? Do you really think the rest of us are that stupid? Come on…
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
I didn’t say thing anything about a blockade against China you arrogant fool. I just wouldn’t hand over a Chinese hero back to the communists like the Dems just did. Kind of reminds me of the time the young kid was sent back to Castro when he could have been kept here without repercussion. Dems speak big about “human rights” but cower to the communists and dictators they admire.
Doggone/GA
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
“Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?”
Do you not think that if more people are buying a company’s products that they may have the money to hire more people regardless of the regulatory situation?
larry
May 4th, 2012
10:08 am
Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?
No. They would just give it to the CEO , just like they have been for the last 30 years.
Besides, most of those reglulations go to protect our water and air from pollutants and poisonous materials.
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
10:09 am
Paul
I’ve been looking at the masters versus undergrad options. I don’t want to potentially miss important courses by going the masters route if it will better enhance my understanding to do undergrad courses too. The biggest obstacle though is finding a good school with online offerings. The job doesn’t leave much time for in-class type schooling.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
May 4th, 2012
10:10 am
ByteMe:
“If you add these 2.8 million discouraged workers, who are victims of Obama’s failed economic policies, the real unemployment rate is a whopping 9.9 percent instead of the 8.3 percent the administration announced Friday.”
http://townhall.com/columnists/donaldlambro/2012/02/08/obamas_true_unemployment_rate_is_really_99_percent/page/full/
“Obama’s made-up jobless numbers”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/5/curl-obamas-made-up-jobless-numbers/?page=all
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:10 am
I just wouldn’t hand over a Chinese hero back to the communists like the Dems just did
And you know he’s a “hero” how? If he’s such a hero, why aren’t the Chinese on the streets clamoring for him?
You’re being sold a bill of neo-con goods. Our foreign policy is about business and war (also a business), not about individuals.
Mighty Righty
May 4th, 2012
10:11 am
Jamvet
“We’d probably have 15% unemployment right now…”
Here is a news flash. We do have 15% unemployment, actually more than 15 percent caused by the Obama Gusher Down Poverty program.
ragnar danneskjold
May 4th, 2012
10:11 am
Month to month blips are not terribly meaningful. I am distressed that the total number of jobs remains below that total on Jan 2009. When you spend a trillion dollars you don’t have, on shovel-ready jobs that aren’t, leaving the next generations to pay the bills, maybe you ought not expect a happy outcome.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:11 am
“If you add these 2.8 million discouraged workers, who are victims of Obama’s failed economic policies, the real unemployment rate is a whopping 9.9 percent instead of the 8.3 percent the administration announced Friday
Again, how did the calculation change from before? Did the calculation before include these “discouraged workers”? And how is it deceptive?
You’re just parroting talking points, not investigating to see if they’re really true.
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:11 am
“Not to mention those who’ve given up looking for jobs and that makes the unemployment percentage inaccurate.”
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
9:34 am
You do understand that those no longer looking for work have not been counted in the unemployment rate for a long, long time, right?
In economics, a discouraged worker is a person of legal employment age who is not actively seeking employment or who does not find employment after long-term unemployment. This is usually because an individual has given up looking or has had no success in finding a job, hence the term “discouraged”.
The United States Department of Labor first began tracking discouraged workers in 1967 and found 500,000 at the time. There is an ongoing debate as to whether discouraged workers should be included in the official unemployment rate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discouraged_worker
In other words, your news has not been news for 45 years…
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:12 am
I am distressed that the total number of jobs remains below that total on Jan 2009
NOT TRUE.
See above.
We’re 1 million above Feb 2009.
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:12 am
“We do have 15% unemployment”
Please show your work.
Otherwise you get another F.
Atlantan
May 4th, 2012
10:13 am
Obama’s economy….
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:13 am
td, any luck on finding that data yet?
Brosephus™
May 4th, 2012
10:13 am
“If you add these 2.8 million discouraged workers, who are victims of Obama’s failed economic policies,
What failed economic policies? Obama hasn’t gotten anything economically passed since the stimulus. If anything, it’s due to the failure of congress to supply any economic policy at all. But, go ahead and blame Obama anyway if it helps you sleep at night….
Jay
May 4th, 2012
10:13 am
Do you not think that if a company spends less money on adhering to more regulation then they may have the money to hire more people?
First of all, no.
Companies aren’t hiring because they don’t have enough customers to buy additional goods and services. Why make things that you cannot sell?
Your version of events suggests that lack of capital is the problem holding back the economy. That’s not even close to being true, not in an era of record corporate profits and record low interest rates.
Finally, the ABSENCE of regulations — and the absence of enforcement — explains a lot about how we got into this mess. Stopping for red lights is a regulation. Selling non-contaminated food is a regulation. Not polluting a river — thus keeping it available for fishing, swimming and drinking water — is a regulation. WIthout those regulations the economy would be a lot worse off.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:14 am
td, any luck on finding that data yet?
I’m guessing he ran away and hid. Facts to fools are like sunshine to vampires.
Steve
May 4th, 2012
10:14 am
If we have 15% unemployment now, what did we have at the end of two Republican GWB terms? 35%?
Jack
May 4th, 2012
10:15 am
I know what’ll fix the American economy: sell houses to those standing in line for hand-outs. Just like in the movies; everybody will live happily ever after.
kayaker 71
May 4th, 2012
10:15 am
Reported 8.1% unemployment…… a contrived number made up by a bunch of desperate politicians swimming against the tide. 12.5 M people still out of work. Economic growth was supposed to be, according to Bozo, at about 4% at this time of this first term. It is at 1.6% and getting lower. Something is not working, libs. A “long, hard slog”? Boy, that’s a joke.
UNCLE SAMANTHA
May 4th, 2012
10:15 am
jamvet
here ya go
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/02/whats-the-real-jobless-rate/
Paul
May 4th, 2012
10:16 am
Mighty Righty
“Under the dysfuntional Obama povertynomics progrsm we have not trickle down but gusher down poverty.”
Under whose watch was the recession begun, and under whose watch was the bulk of the time spent to end the recession?
It’s really a simple question. You can answer it in two words. Four if you want to include titles.
Curious
May 4th, 2012
10:17 am
For those that have given up finding employment; Good Riddance!
They must be slugs if they can’t find a job. They would only be a drain on productivity.
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
10:17 am
JV – I know what you are saying. However I don’t blame this disaster of an economy on one side like you appear to? This disaster was DECADES in the making. Anyone that keeps voting these failed policies back in to office (Nancy Pelosi, etc.) should accept the blame. Bush and Oblama are just a continuation and an escalation of this disaster. Oblama has NO reasonable plan to reverse this disaster. Both sides accept corporate campaign money for favors. Past TIME for a CHANGE. Term Limits.
USinUK
May 4th, 2012
10:18 am
“I do want socialism/communism to fail in America.”
the socialism myth is such a load of BS that, now, you’re doubling down and saying that COMMUNISM is running amok in the US???
wow.
there are a LOT of people that have no blue bloody idea what those terms actually mean
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:18 am
They must be slugs if they can’t find a job. They would only be a drain on productivity
You forgot to mention you want to tax them as well, the deadbeats….
UNCLE SAMANTHA
May 4th, 2012
10:18 am
jay
you are correct about consumer demand…….. we built an economy that had a majority dependency on consumer demand……… without it we sink and stagnate
until the banks are cleaned up or cleaned out…….. and the foreclosures are processed………… consumer demand will not pick up
Recon 0311 2533
May 4th, 2012
10:19 am
You can call someone who no longer seeks employment anything you wish but that doesn’t change the fact that a reported 8.1% unemployment rate is inaccurate when the economy isn’t creating a sufficient number of jobs. Bottom line Obamanomics isn’t working.
USinUK
May 4th, 2012
10:19 am
“a contrived number made up by a bunch of desperate politicians swimming against the tide”
the BLS is staffed with politicians???
who knew.
Steve Atl
May 4th, 2012
10:20 am
Jay – I think there is a technical error with your blog…somehow the chart and verbage about the workforce declining by 522,000 was cut off and thus did not portray your usual fair and balanced point of view.
Better call IT and see what happened…darn ‘puters!!
blahblahblah
May 4th, 2012
10:20 am
BubbleBoy Ben B. will be here in no time with his sack of cheap money. Throw another couple trillion on the pile in the name of “growth”.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:20 am
Bottom line Obamanomics isn’t working.
Translation: I got nothing but emotionalism and contempt.
Jym Allyn
May 4th, 2012
10:20 am
You also forgot to mention that 1932 Republican policies resulted in a 20% unemployment rate.
Thank God that some things change and hopefully we can learn from experience.
Mark in mid-town
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
Jay Bookman writes: “Part of it’s undoubtedly because there are fewer jobs. But part of it also has to be attributed to an aging work force, with the first Baby Boomers starting to turn 60 in 2006.”
Jay, what you wrote above was the real reason so was so little net job growth under Bush relative to Clinton, even though the unemployment rate averaged a tad more than 5% of Bush’s 8 years. Under Bush, up until the end, the economy was doing well and increased numbers of people in their 50s were able to decide they could afford to retire. But that was never explained by our illustrious msm. Rather, the msm tried to portray the economy under Bush as being in a constant recession, even though unemployment rate was pretty good by any historic measure.
What you have under Obama is a work force participation rate that is only partially dropping due to increased share of people being old, rather you have an incredible drop in the work force participation rate among young people. That’s disastrous for our future, and it should be pointed out.
Jay
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
We have a million more private-sector jobs today than we did in February 2009, when Obama signed the stimulus bill.
ByteMe - Political thug
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
the BLS is staffed with politicians???
In Rightwingnutistan, statisticians are “math politicians”.
Mighty Righty
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
Paul,
After three years this is Obama’s economy. No amount of distortion will change that. Obama, you and every other liberal media outlet have been saying for more than a year that the recessison is over. Really! The economic numbers this year show a worsening economy. Who is in charge now?
TaxPayer
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
Scout,
Check your logic. We don’t hold elections every three years.
Jefferson
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
This issue won’t go away just because there is an election. Last time the GOP ran things it went south, why does anyone think they won’t turn it around again ? Huh ? Why ? They have proven they can do it, you know crash everything. What have they changed ? Nothing.
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
10:21 am
Jay states an obvious point. At least to anyone who regards these matters in terms of verifiable facts and not ideological slogans.
The Middle Class has been devastated in this country. Forty years of flat-lined wages have caused millions to now be among the working poor.
In 1992 we averaged about 60% of our income in debt. By 2005, it had risen to over 130%. People way over leveraged themselves to either pay for necessities or live extravagantly.
Either way, the pull back in consumption has been gargantuan.
More simply put, as Jay noted, “Companies aren’t hiring because they don’t have enough customers to buy additional goods and services.”
50% of the people in this country earn less than $33,000 per year.
And until Americans, in huge numbers again, start earning more than minimal incomes, things are only going to feed on themselves and not improve.
But hey! The 1% are not worried!
USinUK
May 4th, 2012
10:22 am
“a reported 8.1% unemployment rate is inaccurate when the economy isn’t creating a sufficient number of jobs”
it’s the same methodology that’s been used for 3 decades.
Oblama
May 4th, 2012
10:22 am
Our foreign policy is about business and war not about individuals? Precisely why Oblama needs to go. The Chinese freedom fighters world wide say he’s a hero. They know more than you PRESUME to know. You are so ARROGANT.
GT
May 4th, 2012
10:22 am
It could and can get worse. Off shore accounting is only a small part of the problem. Jobs are going off shore too, been for years. In South Carolina they opened up multi numbers of federal prisons, to off set the textile industry evaluating the state and country. Now mama and daddy are prison guards or in prison both take them off unemployment and both are non productive economically. South Carolina is Strom Thurman’s state or was in those days. One of these prisons was in Edgefield, Thurman’s home town and family property was sold for it. Prisons drain the economy but hide the failure of the administration in charge by looking like there is employment. Republicans are good at this cooking the books. Read the budget and you would think defense spending is about the same, when huge amounts of it are dealed off to another category like interest carry.
Small business is the thing that is going to save America. We have got to get the the money out of the hands of these hoarders and into the hands of people in this country who need jobs. Sure we pay a little more but we don’t pay 4 dollar a gallon gas either as China drinks it up to meet the demands of robber barons from America sending the jobs to China. We need to stop protecting the intellectual property, many times stolen anyway, for companies who take their profits out of the country, let a small regional business make ipads and outdoor cookers. We need to stop bailout and protecting large banks who in turn support these companies that are no more than modern day plantations. Hunger built this country and it can rebuild it if given the chance. Let a Fidelity National Bank be Bank of America and if that bank fails let the next guy come to bat. Stop rewarding failure that once rewarded takes jobs out of this country. The 1930s depression was a very good economic plan, it corrected all that was wrong, just hurt like hell. 90 percent of the country is hurting anyway.
You harp about saving Detroit, the very saving of this is symbolic of what we need. Those jobs are here now, not in Korea. Most of this saving is going to the untaxed rich not the American people anyway, that money may never return to the US. And we worried about Communism, what did Communism do to us our own greed has not done in spades.